Diwali: Sweeten your taste buds…

Rasgulla

Sweets and Indian festivals? Rasgulla must be on the top of the list! Here’s the way to prepare this traditional sweet of Bengal:Ingredients:1/2 Litre milk 3 tbsp Lemon juice 2 tsp All Purpose Flour 1/4 tsp Rose essence or cardamom powder 1 Cup Water 1 Cup SugarProcedure:Take a pan and heat milk in it. Bring it to a boil.Add lemon juice, stirring slowly and gently till cheese separates from the milk.Now turn off the heat and strain it through a strainer.Make sure all the water from the cheese is drained.Now knead it to make soft dough.Combine flour with it and knead again.Make small rounded balls from the dough, keep aside.The balls should not have any cracks in them.Now combine sugar and water in a saucepan and boil it.Add cheese balls to the syrup and cook it for about 30 minutes with lid partially covered.Add rose essence or cardamom powder and turn the heat off.Allow to cool and serve.

By Ananya Bhattacharya

- Spice Team

Badam Halwa

Popular and easy to prepare, Badam Halwa is one dish that you just can’t afford to miss. Here’s how it can be made!Ingredients:1 Cup Almonds 2-1/2 Cups Sugar 3 Cups Water 2 Cups Ghee 1 Pinch Saffron Procedure:Soak almonds in a bowl with boiling water.Remove the skin of almonds and make fine paste by grinding them in a grinder.Boil sugar with one cup of water in a pan, till it turns into syrup.Add almond paste to the boiling syrup and mix it well.Dilute saffron in a little water and add to the syrup.Instantly mix one-cup ghee.As the above mixture turns paste-like, pour the remaining ghee gradually.A batter like mixture will be formed after sometime. Now remove it from the flame.Badam Halwa is ready to be served! - Spice Team

Rabdi

Make the most of Diwali with Rabdi. Smooth, sweet and with a taste that’s nothing short of paradisiacal, Rabdi is a must-eat this festive season. Here’s how Rabdi can be prepared at home:Ingredients:1 cup Milk 1/2 cup Condensed Milk Sugar to taste 10-12 Pistachios (chopped) 10-15 Saffron Strands 3 drops Rose Essence Procedure:Heat milk in a thick bottomed pan.Once brought to boil, leave it on medium heat till it reduces to one fourth of its original content.Add the condensed milk and keep stirring frequently to prevent it from sticking to the bottom.Now add sugar to the above-made recipe according to taste.Add the rose essence and remove the pan from the flame. Allow it to cool.Finally garnish the Rabdi with chopped pistachios and saffron strands.Refrigerate it.Rabdi is ready to eat. Serve chilled. - Spice Team

Ras Malai

Sweeten your Diwali celebrations with the exquisite taste of Ras Malai. Here’s how you can prepare it at home:Ingredients:1 can Rasgullas 1/4 tsp Cardamom powder A few Saffron strands (soaked in 1/4 cup warm milk) 4 cups Milk 1/4 cup Sugar Procedure:In a non stick pan, boil milk, stirring continuously.Next, add sugar, cardamom powder, and saffron.Remove from heat and let it cool.Now, squeeze rasgullas from the can gently and put them in the milk mixture.Check sweetness of the milk.Add sweet syrup from the can, if required.Garnish with finely chopped nuts and raisins of your choice.Serve chilled. - Spice Team

Jalebi

How can those orangish, heavenly coils be given a miss on Diwali! Here’s how Jalebi is made:Ingredients:2 cups All Purpose Flour 1-1/2 tbsp Rice flour 1/4th tsp Baking powder 2 tbsp Curd 3 cups Sugar 2-1/2 cups Water 1/2 tsp Cardamom (powdered) Ghee or Vegetable oil for fryingProcedure:Mix the flour, rice flour, baking powder, curd in a bowl.Mix well, add water and whisk until smooth.Set aside for about 2 hours to ferment.Whisk thoroughly before use.Prepare one string syrup by dissolving sugar in the water.Just before the syrup is ready add cardamom powder.Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan or kadhai.Pour the batter in a steady stream into the kadhai to form coils.Make 4-5 at a time.Deep fry them until they are golden and crisp all over but not brown.Remove from the kadhai and drain on kitchen paper and immerse in the sugar syrup.Leave for at least 4-5 minutes so that they soak the syrup.Take them out of syrup and serve hot.Jalebi is ready to be served! - Spice Team

Procedure:Grind the cashew to make powder.Take a bowl, pour water, sugar and boil it until it become sticky (sugar syrup).Now put cashew powder, cardamom powder in the sugar syrup and mix it well. Make sure that syrup should be hot.Keep mixing until all syrup is absorbed.Now roll it on a butter paper about 1/4 inch thick.Decorate it with silver foil.Allow it to cool for about half an hour and then serve! - Spice Team

Churma Laddoo

Mounds of those mouth-watering Laddoos are sheer delight to the taste buds. Here’s how to make Churma Laddoo at home:Ingredients:500 gm Wheat flour 200 gm Melted ghee 25 gm Jaggery 1/8 Cup Water 1 tsp Poppy Seeds A pinch of Cardamom powder 5-6 RaisinsProcedure:Mix ghee and wheat flour in a bowl.Add little water and prepare hard dough. Leave the dough aside for half an hour.Make palm-shaped balls of this dough and fry in ghee on a medium flame, until light brown in color.Allow to cool and grind coarsely.Melt jaggery with ghee and add it to the churma mixture.Mix well, add powdered cardamom and make laddoos.Decorate with poppy seeds and serve! - Spice Team

Procedure:Boil the milk till it reduces to half cup.Cool and add soda powder and 1tbsp sugar.Mix properly and make it smooth.Slowly add flour and prepare a fine dough. Leave it for an hour.Apply little ghee on the palms.Make small balls from the prepared mixture.Pour ghee in a pan and heat. Fry the balls in ghee on a low flame.Boil water with equal amount of sugar. Also add cardamom and saffron.Filter and add rose essence to it.Put the fried balls in this solution.Remove after 3-4 hours.The Gulab Jamun is ready to serve! - Spice Team

Let your sweet-tooth indulge...

Diwali and no sweets? That’s just not possible. The festival, like most other Indian festivals, is one where people just don’t know how to give their sweet-teeth a rest. Heaps of mithai, the mere thought of which is enough to make people salivate their glands out, make for the most important food during the festival of Diwali. Lights and firecrackers outside the house and mounds of sweets inside – that is probably how every household celebrates Diwali. Here’s a look at some of the most loved sweets that people just cannot afford to miss during the Festival of Lights! - Spice Team